


one brain cell required

by zommijin



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Ben Hargreeves is Alive, Canon Compliant, Crackhead vibes uwu, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Easter eggs from all different fandoms, Fluff, Gen, Infinity Gems, Kinda Crack, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Canon, Probably ooc, This fic gets more crack worthy the deeper u get in this, Time Travel, Umbrella Academy - Freeform, ahaha bet u don’t even read these tags, suck my pp, the avengers are in this like in chapter five
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2019-11-07 22:23:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17969171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zommijin/pseuds/zommijin
Summary: After barely escaping the apocalypse, Five teleports his entire family into another mess of a world— one where Thanos had just snapped his fingers.After everyone stopped disintegrating, only three of the seven siblings remain in this strange new world; a sober Klaus, an emotional wreck Diego, and a completely confused Ben Hargreeves and they are stuck without a way out.The Avengers—or what’s left of them, have been alerted to a rift opening in New York, and go investigate the issue. They expect aliens. Instead, they meet three incompetent children, who apparently have superpowers.Many shenanigans occur because the evens club barely has enough room for one brain cell....mcu & umbrella academy crossover bc im trash





	1. half of the world poofs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> u click on this story so u automatically epic in my book
> 
> hi wow couldn’t stop to make yet anOther crossover bc I’m trash.
> 
> A/N: hi so it’s been a while and these early chapters r under some revision cause they’re old n probably written weird. 
> 
> None of these are beta'd so u have to deal with my 3 am English mistakes. Good luck to you, my fellow reader.

 

The first thing Ben was aware of was that someone was gripping his arm very tightly. The second thing that came to mind was:  _wait I’m dead how is someone—_

The third thing he realized was that, that very same someone was now clinging tightly to him, sobbing loudly. Ben stood confused, then he looked down, and realized he had a physical form.

He slowly moved his arms, hugging the person back, still sluggish and in shock. 

 

"I— I’m—“ 

 

”You're alive!" Klaus cut him off abruptly, squeezing him painfully tight, as tears flowed down his cheeks. "I missed you and your squishy cheeks." He cried as he affectionately patted Ben's left cheek.

Ben laughed, feeling tears beginning to roll down his face, and squeezed Klaus closer. 

He felt more bodies pile into the hug, and Ben cried as he was finally able to feel his siblings embraces; Allison's familiar, always-slightly-too-long nails digging into his arm, the dull end of one of Diego's blades digging into his side, Luther's crushing grip, and Five's tight squeezes. He never realized how much he missed being able to be with his family and the feelings are all so overbearing and oh no, he was crying some more.

 _"_ I missed you guys so much." He managed to choke out, tears streaming down his face. He felt his lips curling up into a smile, and a soft chuckle ripped free.

Luther was the first to untangle himself from the group hug, always being the awkward one. Although, he was holding an unconscious Vanya.

The others shortly follow, unsure of what to do next. Ben began trying to compose himself, wiping his cheeks furiously but his eyes were like a broken water pipe and wouldn’t stop leaking. He was laughing and crying at the same time, and it felt so weird so he laughed and cried harder, feeling euphoric.

"To be young and hot again!" Klaus grinned widely, wiping his own tears from his face, as he gave his younger body a once-over.  He then smiled at Ben, his smile softening, and his eyes reddened and bloodshot from crying. He wrapped an arm around Ben’s shoulder, pulling him close.

Ben took solace in Klaus's familiar grip, burrowing his head into his jacket.

Five suddenly sank to the floor, groaning. Everyone quickly turned to face him. "Ah fuck, get me a coffee right now... or a beer. Maybe some aspirin." 

His skin had gone as pasty as a sheet of paper, and his nose was beginning to bleed. He swiped at his nose, only to leave a long bloody trail streaked across his face.

"Are—are you okay?" Diego stuttered, quickly bending down. He gently placed his hand on Five's arm. "Does it look like I’m okay?" Five barked, and Diego flinched slightly. 

"S—sorry. Sorry." He grumbled quietly, retracting his hand, looking slightly hurt by Five’s bluntness.

Five huffed, "Just—just give me a couple of minutes, I’ll be fine. I think." He waved his hand in a shooing motion, and Diego backed off. 

"So. Um, does anyone actually _know_  where we are?" Klaus frowned, looking around the area. "I really don’t ever remember seeing this part of town and I literally have a map of the city in my head."

Ben scanned the area; a heavily-populated downtown area, with many cars on the street and tall buildings surrounding them. All of them were unfamiliar terrain. "I don’t think we're near home..." 

Allison furrowed her brows, seemingly deep in thought. "I think I recognize this place? It's near one of the sets I had to act in, but that would mean we're in New York. That doesn’t make any sense." She glanced over at Luther. "What do you think we should do?" 

Luther glanced around, eyes big and round. "Um. Maybe I shouldn’t be the leader this time around?" He shifted from side to side, looking uncomfortable as he glanced down at Vanya.

"Yeah." Diego agreed, quietly shuffling his feet. No one else agreed nor objected and a wave of silence passed.

 

The Hargreeves stood on the sidewalk, in an awkward but peaceful quiet. A helicopter passed by overhead, the blades humming softly.

 

Then suddenly, a truck slammed into a vehicle parked nearby, and Klaus screamed, suddenly clinging to Ben, causing him to lose his balance. 

The two boys tumbled to the ground, the brittle concrete scraping Ben's bare legs. "Ow." Ben muttered. Klaus had fallen on top of him, preventing the other boy to get up. 

Cars began honking and Ben watched in horror from the ground, as another vehicle careened out of control, drifting into the wrong lane. He flinched as other cars swerved and came to a stop, barely missing each other. 

Five jolted up from his position on the ground, and immediately doubled over, cussing and groaning. Allison quickly caught Five before he could collapse.

A car jumped the curb, barely missing Klaus and Ben. Klaus wildly got up and sharply jerked Ben away from the road. People began getting out of their cars, yelling and pointing. Chaos erupted in front of them, and people began pushing and shoving. 

"Guys, there—there was no one in the car." Diego pointed out, clinging tightly to Klaus. Then, Diego's eyes widen and he shoved Luther harshly to the side. Luther let out a sharp yelp, stumbling over his own feet, nearly dropping Vanya.

Someone knocked Allison and Five over, and they got lost in the crowds of rushing people. 

 

"What was that fo—“ 

"Th-the helicopter—!”

 

A loud explosion was heard overhead, and someone shoved Ben away—

_and he's lying on the ground. There are deafening screams and everything is muffled and his ears are ringing, his arms are scraped up—_

_"Ben!"_  Klaus is pulling him again, away from the debris. Ben stumbled over some rubble, as he was herded away. They stumbled over a body, and Ben felt nausea building in his stomach. 

His mouth was filled with the taste of blood, and his lip was bleeding profusely. His limbs ached, and he staggered, nearly collapsing. He clung tightly to Klaus, knowing that if he let go, he would fall and never get up.

Diego led the group, pulling Klaus onto the road where all the cars had stopped moving. "Come on!" Diego yelled. 

Luther was somewhere behind, pushing his way through the crowd, cradling Vanya as best as he could. Allison had her arms wrapped protectively around Five and she had a nasty bruise forming on her face. 

People brushed around them, jostling Ben and nearly knocking him over in their panicked state. He almost let go of Klaus several times, as people continued to scramble across the streets.

Diego hurried over to a car that still has a kid locked in there, and the poor child was screaming and banging on the window. Luther tugged on the car door and jerked it off in a swift motion, and Diego scooped the little girl up. 

 

Diego carried the child over to the sidewalk and set her down, looking around crazily. 

 

Ben felt uneasiness creeping up his spine, glancing wildly around at the mobs of people screaming. A shriek from the child brought him spinning back around. 

Through blurry vision he watched, as the little girl begin to  _disintegrate_.

 

She screamed, staring as her hand slowly crumpled to dust. Ben’s heart was in his throat, bewilderment and fear rising. The girl began to cry, completely terrified. Diego unsurely reached his hand out, maybe to try and comfort the distressed child. 

Then, within a few seconds, nothing was left of the girl except for a few pieces of ashes blowing in the wind. Diego crouched down, dumbfounded, over where the girl had been. "What—what?" He got out, looking exasperated, touching the concrete where the girl had sat.

Around them, others began to scream as their loved ones began to crumble to ashes. Ben was harshly shoved to the side, by a frantic father screaming for his children. 

"K-Keith! LANCE! Where did you two rascals go?" He yelled, his voice being lost in the crowds of people panicking.

 

Someone else trampled over Ben's foot, and he stumbled backward into another person, both of them tumbling to the ground. People rushed past them, stomping on his hands, kicking his stomach, and someone tripped over his body. He curled tighter around himself, afraid that the wrong kick might awaken the tentacled beast that hid in his stomach.

He closed his eyes and desperately wished that this was just another terrible nightmare. 

 _Defend. Defend. Defend._ The creature wanted out, it wanted to keep him safe from the cruelty of the rushing people. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be too bad, to be protected by the onslaughts of people.  _Defend. Defend. DEF—_

"Ben!" Klaus reached through the fray of people, grabbing hold of his wrist and pulling him back up. Ben clung to Klaus, terrified that if they got separated, the tentacles might just come out and cause even more chaos. 

 

"Vanya...?" 

 

Ben spun around, only to see that Vanya was beginning to disintegrate too. Luther cradled her protectively, his eyes glinting with fear. "Oh man..." He whispered, as his hand began crumbling. 

"Luther!" Allison cried out, reaching her hand out. Her fingertips barely graze Luther’s forearm, before she too began to fade. "Allis—ALLISON?" Luther gripped her hand, before he became no more. 

"I—I don’t understand what’s happen—“ Her words cut off, never to finish her sentence as she completely turned to dust. Ben watched, mouth going dry as the small bits drifted off into the cloudy sky. 

Five teetered on his feet, eyes widening as his feet gave out, turning into specks of dust. 

Ben clung to Klaus, watching in terror as the scene unfolded in front of them. Diego rushed forward to catch Five, but Five turned into dust before he could even hit the floor.

"VANYA! LUTHER! ALLISON? FIVE!" Diego screamed into the air, and he wheeled around in circles. A screaming passerby knocked Diego over, and the boy fell harshly to the pavement. 

Diego crawled over to the road, and fell off the sidewalk, away from the rushing people. Klaus grabbed Ben’s arm, tugging him through the wall of people that seperated the siblings. 

Diego had curled in on himself, thouroughly  defeated and confused. Tears began welling up in his eyes as he sat in his sibling's ashes. 

"Guys?" He looked at Ben and Klaus, sniffling. "Pl-please don't disappear too."

It was a huge moment of vulnerability. Not many times had Ben seen Diego break down like this. Dark, pleading eyes stared up at Ben, and he wished he could make all of this chaos go away for Diego. 

 

What kind of brother couldn’t protect another? 

 

Ben held his hand up, expecting himself to crumble to pieces at any moment, but it didn’t happen. He trembled, fear clawing its way up his throat. Klaus carefully rested his hand on brother’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?” 

Ben began to cry, feeling overwhelmed. 

Was he okay? Well, so first off he was alive again, and then he was just reuniting with his siblings and then suddenly half of them suddenly disappeared. 

Maybe— just maybe, Ben was supposed to remain dead but in this world he lived but traded half of his siblings for his life. He’d been so greedy for life again, he didn’t even stop and think about any of the consequences. 

Tears trickled down his face, guilt swallowing him whole. 

Klaus gently took his hand, and said something which was lost to the loud ringing in Ben’s ears. 

 

They collapsed down to the street, and the remaining Hargreeves shared a group hug and a lot of confused tears, while chaos raged on in the background.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any fandom: exists  
> Me: cROSSOVER WITH MCU LESGO
> 
> Yeeeeeaaaaaahhh so I haven’t written in a bit so please let me know your thoughts and also any possible grammar mistakes I may have made yeehaw 
> 
> Comments and kudos fuel me to write more òwó)


	2. klaus tries to be a mom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter two!! :D

Klaus wasn’t sure of how much time had passed since everyone had started turning into dust particles.

He had his arms wrapped around his siblings, and for once he seemed to be the most in control. They hadn’t moved from their position, numbly blocking out the world as disaster raged around them. It was quiet on the street now, cars parked haphazardly all over the road, all the people had fled—or had turned to dust, Klaus did not know, and the building the helicopter had crashed into was continuing to slowly burn down. It was almost peaceful if not for the fact that they were probably sitting in their siblings' and probably other strangers' ashes. 

His siblings' sudden... disappearances, had definitely jarred him but what kept him grounded was that right now, Ben and Diego needed him. The grief and all those other wacky emotions would probably hit him hard at some point in the future, but now was not the time. He wanted to figure out how to take care of the two, just like they had to him in the past.

Ben was taking in small shuddering breaths, and he had his face tightly buried into Klaus' side, while Diego was blankly staring off into space. 

"So... Um, are you guys okay?" Klaus asked weakly. He was really good at striking up conversation, but trying to find a good starter question to your siblings who were probably tramautized and/or in shock was a _bit_ difficult.

Diego let out a small grunt in response, while Ben let out a loud sniffle.  

"Glad to see you two aren't dead." Klaus tried again, gently nudging the two.

Diego nudged him back, hard. "Y-yeah, well four... four of our siblings are." He grumbed, crossing his arms. He stood up, looking around. "I’m going t-to walk around. I want to see if I can find some sort of answer to what's happening. I won’t go far." Klaus watched as Diego wandered off.

Ben hadn’t moved from his spot, but he had stopped crying so maybe Klaus was making progress? He counted it as a slight win in his book.

"You okay, my little bro?" Klaus tried, poking Ben's exposed knee. Ben slowly raised his head up, and he looked really... _awful._ His eyes were red and puffy, blood and grime streaking his face, nose running like a faucet and his cheeks were stained with tear tracks. Ben let out a tiny whimper, clinging to Klaus' arm.

Klaus attempted to gently wipe some of the tears and dust off his face, and was about seventy-five percent successful. Ben gave Klaus a watery smile and wiped the rest of his face with the palm of his hand. "Yeah— yeah I’m good." He replied softly.

Klaus proceeded to give Ben another huge squeeze. 

"Why are we in New York?" Ben suddenly asked, voice hoarse. "I— I thought Five was going to take us back in time, but I don’t ever remember people turning to dust back then." 

"I honestly don’t know." Klaus replied, gently squeezing Ben's arm. "But, Diego's gone off to see if he can find something that might help give us an idea to why we're here." 

Ben opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by the sound of glass shattering, followed by Diego loudly cursing. "Diego!" Klaus shouted, immediately jumping to his feet. 

"I'm fine!" Diego yelled, poking his head up from one of the cars. He ran back to the two, his hand slightly bloody, clutching a newspaper. New York Times, was proudly emblazoned on the front in a cursive font. 

He then flung the newspaper at his siblings. "Look at the date it was published."

"In May... 2018." Klaus read aloud, his finger lightly skimming over the printed date.

 

"That’s— that’s not possible." Ben muttered. "One year ago? There were no such records of New Yorkers turning into dust. Something like this would’ve made world headlines." 

 

"Exactly." Diego said, pointing at the newspaper. "So, w-why and how did this happen? And why am I in m-my thirteen year old form if we've only gone back a year?" 

Klaus pressed his hand to his forehead, sensing an oncoming headache. "This is so confusing. Did we seriously just fuck up the timeline?"

Ben frowned, then responded. "It's entirely possible that us avoiding the apocalypse could've caused another world catastrophe to happen in its place. I mean, reading all those superhero comics as a kid that dealt with time travel, I learned that time travel was super dangerous. I used to try and prevent Five from attempting time jumps because I was afraid he'd get hurt."

"S-superhero comics, really Ben?" Diego huffed, crossing his arms. "This is real life."

"I mean, we have superpowers!" Ben retorted. "Besides I think the Flash really taught me a lot about superhero training, and those comics also dealt with time travel! Every time they go back in time to try and change something, there's always consequences! Sometimes small and sometimes really big! It’s, well, just a possibility!"

"Comics don’t mean s-shit about real life!"

Klaus groaned, watching the two bicker about comics, then whined. "Maybe we should’ve just died in the apocalypse."

That effectively shut the two up.  

Diego began pacing around in circles. "I th-think we should try and find others, like to see if an-anyone else is still alive and not dust." He turned around, looking at Klaus. "What d-do you think we should do?"

Klaus stood, gave him a thumbs up. "Sounds like a good start as any. Objections, Ben?" He waited for a response but got nothing. "Ben?"

He looked down, and saw that Ben was reading the newspaper. "Hey, like I know reading is like a drug to you, but right now it's time to kick that addiction, at least for a little bit! C’mon boo-boo."

"Who's Tony Stark?" Ben held up the newspaper article titled: **Tony Stark: Iron Man missing in action.**

"And who are the Avengers?" He began to read aloud: "Several other of the Avengers, including Mr. Bruce Banner, who we have not heard from in a while, were spotted in New York yesterday. More reports of sightings of the Rogue Avengers have also come in from multiple witnesses..." 

Ben stood up, clutching the article. "From what I read in the article, the Avengers are like a superhero group. Kind of like how the Umbrella Academy was! But we’ve—or at least I’ve never heard anything about the Avengers before." 

 

"Wow, I guess Five really fucked the timeline!"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ?? I’m blown away by your support on the first chapter omg thank you guys <3
> 
> Weird question but does anyone know where the umbrella academy is located or can I just make it up lolol
> 
> Also I tend to update really weird lol so I don’t know when I’ll have the next chapter out but hopefully it’ll be soon! see y’all next chapter! Should be a chapter focused more around Diego^^


	3. diego needs a hug

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a longer chap bc I neglected this for a while TT

It was quiet as the trio made their way down the streets of New York. Diego liked it that way. 

 

He walked ahead of the other two, scouting the way. Diego needed some time to think to himself, to figure out what to do as the next leader of the group. After all, after number one, came number two.

Number one— Luther, he was gone now.

_...He was gone now._

Diego sucked in a small breath, digging his nails into his wrist. Luther had just... fucking disintegrated! Leaving him to take charge at the wheel. Diego had hated Luther's power over the group, he’d often wish to hold the spot of leader. Now? He really wanted someone else behind the wheel. It was stupid, really, he’d always wanted to lead but now he— he just _couldn’t._

He dug his nails deeper, inhaling in and exhaling slowly, trying to stay calm. _Don’t be weak. You can do this, do it for them. For Ben and Klaus. You. Got. This._

He gasped, feeling a sharp sting on the inside of his wrist. Diego blinked, staring dumbfoundedly as he realized he’d broken his skin. He pulled his jacket tighter around himself, hands trembling. He bit his bottom lip, tucking his hands deep into his pockets, scrambling for bits of warmth.

Klaus and Ben trailed behind him, quietly talking to each other. 

It was so _... weird_  to see Ben, alive, happy and well. Number six had always been a crucial part of keeping the whole team together, and his death had proved that fact to be true— everyone left the Umbrella Academy not too long after Ben's passing. 

Ben still seemed pretty out of it, but Klaus kept the boy grounded in reality. Klaus had his arms sling tightly around Ben's shoulders, grinning at every single word that came out of the boy's mouth. Ben had a shy smile as he talked about something, then punched Klaus' arm when he responded.

 ~~Diego totally wasn't jealous of the close bond the two had.~~  

_Well, I guess this really is the apocalypse— Klaus is the most sensible out of all of us right now, and he’s taking care of us, instead of us taking care of him. He’s basically the leader right now, he... he knows what he’s doing._

Diego did appreciate what Klaus had done, snapping him out of his meltdown earlier. He didn’t know how to put this appreciation into words though. Diego had just squeezed Klaus’ shoulder for a beat too long, making the gesture seem a bit awkward, and then Diego announced that they should start going. 

Diego wasn’t exactly the most affectionate type person, nor was he good at expressing his feelings. Klaus had then gently smiled at him, and Diego realized that he had understood that Diego was trying to thank him, in his own way.

_When did Klaus start figuring these things out about him?_

Diego was never really a role-model good sibling as a child, he'd insult others until they cried or ran away. He was hotheaded, and always argued to get his way, and had a tantrum if things didn’t work out. He pushed everyone away— except for Grace, he could _never_ ever push her away, no matter how hard he tried— because he was afraid anyone who got close enough would see the realDiego. 

Real Diego was someone who deeply loved his siblings, a small boy who had a lot of emotions. He didn’t want others to see this... this soft, weak side of him, someone who let their emotions guide their actions. This soft side of him also often got people he cared for in danger.

Sir Hargreeves had raised him that way— emotions were just silly and only got in the way of things. He wasn’t sure of how many times he had cried when he was younger when Father was trying to train him, only to have Hargreeves yell at him for crying.

He tried to shut most of his emotions out, desperate to please his own father. The others had managed to gain somewhat of their father's nonexistent affection, and Diego craved it. He wanted the praise, even if it was just white lies disguised as a gift. Finally, he realized that his siblings were often the cause of why he got soft.

So Diego, from a young age, shut them out. He observed his siblings from the sidelines, and kept them an arms length away at all times. Occasionally he’d let his guard down, and allow for distractions, although now looking back he regretted ever keeping his siblings at bay.

He really enjoyed their company. ( ~~ _He craved it._~~ ) But by the time he realized he wanted to start building bridges with his siblings, everyone had already left the academy.          

Diego breathed in and out, trying to take his mind off of the sudden flow of bad memories. Suddenly his foot hit something, resulting in him losing his balance. Someone grabbed his arm before he could fall.

"You okay?" He looked over to see Ben staring at him.

"Yeah... Yeah." Diego sighed, shaking his head. "Sorry, I— I got distracted." He felt the corners of his lips attempting to quiver up into a smile. Diego shoved his trembling hand into his pocket before Ben could notice it.

_Some leader you are._

Ben let go, the smaller boy biting his lip and shuffled away without a word. The look in his eyes were full of worry, but he didn’t push Diego. 

Diego half appreciated Ben giving him space but the other half wanted to cling to him, and cry his heart out. He wanted to confess everything to everyone, to say sorry for being a bad leader, a bad sibling and even a bad friend. 

Right now was not the right time so Diego quickly walked ahead, putting a distance between himself and Klaus and Ben. He reminded himself to stay focused. 

Bags, toys and other miscellaneous items were scattered all over the street, and Diego picked up a rather large backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. Several car doors were left open, the doors swinging back and forth slightly in the breeze. Diego noted that they could probably take one, as the keys were most likely left behind, but the streets were pretty much blocked up by other vehicles that were all over the place. 

He felt a small pang, as he spotted a pink car seat within a large truck, and a large princess doll left behind. Was the owner of the pink car seat and doll still alive?

Diego wondered if anyone was left alive, because so far, they hadn’t really seen anyone. Maybe this world was a purgatory for Diego, and he had died in the actual apocalypse in 2019, only to wind up here. Kind of a depressing thought, but if it was, at least he wasn’t completely alone. 

A lone crow squawked at him from its perch on a lamppost. It was a pretty fat bird, he noted, the little beady eyes tracking his fidgeting fingers. Diego stared up at it, until the bird flew off, bored at last. At least there were still other living creatures in this strange post-apocalyptic world.

He stared through the windows as he passed by an empty restaurant. Half-eaten plates of food still lying on the tables, as well as jackets slung over chairs. Chills passed through him, as he saw small ashes scattered on the chairs and on the floor.

He wondered how many had been people just wanted to go have some food and have fun together only to disintegrate before even getting to finish. 

They passed by a lone straggler was aimlessly wandering the streets, a blank expression on their face. It was good to know that the entirety of New York's population hadn't completely evaporated. 

They continued to wander through New York, trudging past many scenes of where people had turned into ash. Eventually, Diego came to a stop in front of a mall entrance.

“We can go find—find supplies inside.” Diego said, pushing the door open. “Stay close, okay... okay?” The two bobbed their heads up and down in agreement. 

Diego herded the group to a Walmart, since he knew there probably would be a decent selection of knives to pick from, and also things within the store that would keep Klaus and Ben entertained.

 

Within the Walmart, the place felt like it was out of a video game. The pale lighting gave the place a washed-out feel, shopping carts were scattered around, the checkout aisles still full of items, and it was like everyone just suddenly left. The air conditioner was still on, gently blowing ashes through the air.

Ben shivered, and Klaus fussed over him, buttoning up his jacket. Ben huffed, blushing and tried shooing Klaus away, but he was unsuccessful. Ben let out a squeal swatting at Klaus who was grinning widely, then darting out of the way as Ben chased after him, giggling and yelling very non-threatening threats. The two ran off towards the snacks aisle, laughter and unintelligible threats fading into the not so far off distance. 

Them leaving felt as if the sun had suddenly been smothered by the clouds. He was left alone again, vulnerable to his thoughts once more. The lights overhead hummed quietly, music softly echoing off the walls. 

_I don't want a friend..._

He wandered towards the kitchen supplies aisle, head clouded with troubles. Why was he so sensitive today? Diego swiped at his eyes, pissed off that he couldn’t keep his emotions in check. 

_I want my life in two._

Diego sighed, he felt as if the song was specifically targeting him. He felt so upset and angry and so many other emotions were eating him up. 

_Just one more night, waiting to get there._

There was no one around to witness the tears began to slip down his cheeks. He was angry at Luther for leaving him to be leader, he was mad at Five for dragging them to this hellhole of a world, he was upset that Allison tried to stop Vanya by herself, he was pissed that Vanya caused the end of the world, and he was especially angry at himself. 

_Waiting for you._

Maybe, if he had been a better sibling, always there for them, none of this stupid stuff would’ve happened. Why was he so desperate for his father's love, that he gave up his siblings affection in trade? Why was he so stupidly greedy and selfish? 

_I'm done fighting all night..._

 

He found himself standing in front of the knives. Diego ripped the closest one out of its packaging and angrily stabbed the cardboard, over and over and over and over—

 

"Diego!"

He gasped, breathing heavily, sweat crawling down his spine. He still held the knife in his sweat drenched, shaking hand, fingers curled around the handle. 

 

And then Klaus was there, gently cradling him.

Calmly reassuring him, rocking back and forth ever so slightly. He felt another weight shift on to the hug— probably Ben. "Let it all out." Klaus soothed, patting his back. Diego let go of the knife, barely hearing the sound of it clattering to the floor.

 

He buried his face into Klaus' shirt, sobbing. 

 

 

  _You absolute fuck-up._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter written?! That.. took longer than expected bc I rewrote this chp like twice cause I honestly didn’t like how the others turned out TT 
> 
> Diego is pre messed up but like if you got yeeted out of a universe that was about to end and then shoved into another one where half your siblings yeet and you’re heckling upset but still wanna take care of others but dk how to self care then— :v 
> 
> I’m thinking of writing some random one-shoTs based on some random interactions between the avengers and the umbrella academy kids. What dy’all think?
> 
> REEE S2 HAS BEEN ANNOUNCEDDD!!!! :DD  
> ALSO WE HIT 300 KUDOS AAAA <3333333
> 
> Until next chap! *salutes and nyoooms away*


	4. diego likes furries confirmed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I realized I haven’t updated ina month whoops
> 
> Endgame spoiler-free uwu

 

Eventually, Diego tired himself out and fell asleep on Klaus' shoulder. 

 

Ben gently pulled away from the two, once again unsure of what to do next. Klaus continued to stay still, not wanting to accidentally wake Diego. 

"What now?" Ben asked softly, scratching his arm. It seemed like a question he felt like he’d said about a hundred times since he came back. The world had another apocalypse and he didn’t have any clue on how to change things or make things better for them. 

Klaus' eyes darted up to meet his briefly, before flickering away. "I really don’t know." He sighed. "I— I kinda wish Luther or Allison were here. They’re usually good at making plans and shit." 

Ben slumped against a shelf, wrapping his arms around himself. "I just don’t understand why everyone turned into dust. And, everyone else kinda just ran somewhere. Or they’re dead too. I don’t know." 

“Hey.” Klaus put a free hand on Ben’s arm. “That’s not your job to be all pessimistic about this stuff. It’s mine, okay? Stay your annoyingly positive bullshit way because then I know we’re fucked when you start acting all emo.”

”I am not being pessimistic! I’m just stating that our current situation is very, very not good!” Ben groaned, running a hand through his hair. 

Klaus bit his lip, and Ben could almost see the gears running in his head. Ben curled tighter around himself, and he could feel the tentacles inside of him gently prod around. “Maybe, we should all just... get some rest?” Klaus suggested after a while of silence. 

“Yeah.” Ben murmured, letting out a small yawn that strangely sounded like a cat's mewl. Klaus laughed, breaking the tense ambiance, then yawned too. 

“Alright, nap time kiddo.” He playfully tugged a strand of Ben’s hair, eliciting a high-pitched squeak from the smaller boy.

Ben grinned then shifted into a more comfortable position. Klaus dragged sleeping Diego over to where he was, and rested his head against Ben’s. Klaus darted off, and came back quickly with a large blanket. He began to attempt tucking the two in.

“Wait, Klaus, I need to go to the washroom.” Ben huffed, crawling out from underneath the blanket.  

“You need me to come with you?” Klaus asked, already resuming to his daunting task of tucking Diego in with a blanket.

“I’ll be fine.” Ben reassured him. 

Then, Ben set off on his quest to find the restroom. A loud preppy pop song was playing over the speakers, with an annoyingly catchy chorus. He hummed offbeat along to the song, then promptly crashed into a shelving unit. He usually would’ve easily passed through, but he was no longer a ghost so that was pretty impossible now. 

"Ben?" He heard Klaus holler. "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah! I... um, just ran into a shelf." 

"Be more careful, Benny boy. Love ya! Don’t be a stranger."

Ben smiled to himself and walked towards the checkout aisles, knowing that usually the restrooms were located nearby. Finding the men's room, he went in and relieved himself. The washroom was pretty small, and it reeked of body odour and... well, other things he’d rather not say. 

He paused to look at his reflection in the mirror, as he washed his hands. A bruise had formed on his cheek, and there were several dried up wounds. He gently splashed the water over his face, relishing the comfort it brought. 

As he began walking back to where Klaus and Diego were, he heard a skittering noise. He froze, ears pricking up. The tentacled beast within him began to growl and prod, asking him to let them out. 

Ben tiptoed carefully in the general direction of the sound. Whatever it was, was most definitely not human. It sounded far too small and light to be a person.

He wasn’t sure whether it was just some lost animal, or maybe this apocalypse had let beasts into the world. Ben hoped that a small bunny had somehow gotten lost within Walmart. He tracked down the sound to a pile of shirts, wiggling furiously. 

 _Okay... Um._ Ben stared at the shirts, unwilling to yank them off to see what creature lurked under. A lot of the horror flicks he’d ever watched with Klaus consisted of people carefully looking at something out of the ordinary and suddenly, boom. Dead.

The tentacles underneath his shirt squirmed again, asking to be let out.

 _No._ He told the beast. _Now is not the time, so stop asking. Please._

 

He decided to just quickly rip the shirts off the creature that was hiding beneath. He mentally counted down, hands trembling. 

 

_3... 2... 1..._

 

"Ben?"

Ben screamed, as a pair of hands unexpectedly latched onto the back of his jacket. 

 

"Relax, its just— SHIT—“ Klaus stumbled backwards, screaming, as a fat rat stuck its head out of the shirt pile. Ben jumped at the sudden movement, his heart racing. 

"Get that thing away from me!" Klaus shrieked, smacking Ben. 

"I’m not touching that thing!" Ben screeched in response. "You’re the leader, you deal with it!" 

 

The rat began heading towards them.

 

"GO AWAY YOU HEATHEN!" Klaus screamed at the rodent, making a shooing motion. It did little to deter the charging rat. "ITS NOT STOPPING!"

"I can see tHaAAAT—“ Ben's semi-calm tone cut off into a loud screech as Klaus grabbed Ben and used him as a human shield. "Do the tentacle thing!"

"I am not doing the 'tentacle thing' over a freaking RAT— oh my god, OH GOD, get back—get back." Ben screamed louder, scooting backwards and stepping on Klaus' toes. Klaus shoved Ben away from him in reflex, and Ben nearly lost his balance. Klaus grabbed him by his sleeve, steadying him. 

"That rat wants to MURDER US. Tell my mother I love her." Klaus clung to him tightly, dramatically sobbing. "We don’t have a mother— HOLY SHIZ." Ben inched away as fast as he could from the rodent, with Klaus stuck to him like glue. His back bumped against the shelving unit.

"WE'RE TRAPPED! GOD I HATE RATS!" Klaus shrieked into Ben's ear, and he began to shake Ben back and forth aggressively. Ben's mind began to irrationally form an escape plan. The first thing that came to mind was _up._

"We're going to climb up this shelf, come on!" Ben began clambering clumsily up onto the shelf, knocking off bottles of shampoo.

"I don’t think it’ll hold our wei—“

"JUST CLIMB, KLAUS." The two made a mad scramble up the shelf. 

 

"Guys?" 

 

Diego poked his head from around the corner. "Can y’all be fucking quiet, I was trying—I was trying to sleep here." He then took notice of the position they were in. "Uh. You guys good?" 

"GET THAT DISGUSTING CREATURE AWAY!" Klaus screamed, pointing at the devil spawn scampering around. Diego swooped down, and grabbed the fat animal by the tail. He did not look impressed. 

"It’s just—it’s just a rat." Diego frowned, swinging the rat back and forth by the tail. "This thing can’t even hurt you— why are you guys sitting up... sitting up there?"

Klaus and Ben had both climbed up onto the third floor of the shelf, and the floor had many broken bottles of soap and other hygienic products. The shelving unit creaked under their weight. 

"How are you okay with touching the disgusting creature?" Ben shuddered.

"He's obviously a furry, duh." Klaus smirked. 

The shelf gave another ominous creak. 

"This thing is going to break before we get off isn’t i—AA!" The two came tumbling to the floor, as more bottles of conditioner tackled them, and the floor of the shelf ended up crushing the following floor below it. 

"Ow. Fuck me, that hurt." Klaus grimaced. "Please get rid of the rodent now, please."

Ben just let out a loud groan, his head woozy. Could he not catch a break?

"Wha—what? Get rid? You want me to kill—kill this poor rat?" Diego stared at Klaus as if he’d suddenly grown two eyes out of his head. 

"H—how does a rat life differ from a human life? This thing wasn’t even bothering you guys! You—you were bothering it!" He had stopped swinging the rodent. 

Diego set the plump rat down, and released it’s tail. 

 

"One day, this rat—this rat will save your goddamn life, and you’ll thank me!" 

 

"Okay, yeah, sure. Whatever." Klaus muttered, as the rat disappeared.

 

"That’ll definitely happen one day."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> endgame. Holy fuck. Me and my last three brain cells are trying to comprehend the meaning of it. Ow. Dammm that shit hurt. 
> 
> Hehehe sorry for disappearing for like five years. Also did you get thE rEfeRencE hMmMmMmM mMmmmmMmM
> 
> On a more curious note, would you guys prefer shorter chapters but more frequent updates or longer chaps, slower updates?
> 
> Also another note: this story will EVENTUALLY dive into endgame but rn is spoiler free. Don’t spoil it for anyone else bois.
> 
> Kudos & comments fuel my slowly dying soul òwò


	5. steve gets tentacled (not consensual)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter five :9
> 
> this is the mCU part y’all probably not been waiting for  
> \- ok is it weird that I read parts of this in the avengers' voices lmao

 

Today, had already been very tiring.

Plus, they had already lost half of their closest friends.

 

They Avengers— what was left of them, had returned to the Avengers facility to figure out their next move. And to also take a break. It was mostly just Steve Rogers who had wanted to immediately launch a plan to find Thanos, while everyone else was drained from today’s events.

Rhodes stood, staring as reports became filing in from all over the world, screaming about people disappearing into thin air. Thor had insisted the snap had been his fault, and refused to talk to anyone afterwards. Natasha was half helping Steve with his plans but also half trying to convince Steve to calm down. Bruce had sat down on a chair, and had remained sitting, dazed and muttering quietly to himself. Rocket was busying himself by messing around with some of Tony's tech, and normally Rhodes would’ve yelled at him to stop, but this was definitely not under normal circumstances.

Pepper had barged in, not too long after they’d arrived at the facility, demanding for Tony’s whereabouts. No one had a definite answer to her question, and she immediately tried locating Stark's Iron Man suit, but to no avail. She and Steve has started up a discussion about how they might be able to rescue Tony from space, but the conversation was getting nowhere as they realized they may not have the technology to retrieve him from so far out into space. As the room had quieted down, the alert had gone off about seven beings passing through a portal in New York. 

"Thanos?" Steve and Rhodes murmured at the same time. 

The two turned and looked at each other.  "Let’s go. _Now."_

"Wait, guys, guys. The alert says the portal was opened _hours_ ago." Bruce said, getting up. 

"But then why does this alert show up now?" Rocket exclaimed, and smacked the table. " _This_ is why your planet keeps falling into trouble!"

"Well, I suppose the whole Thanos decimating half the universe may have interfered with your earthling tech." Thor finally spoke up, picking up Stormbreaker as he stood.

 

"If Thanos has indeed returned, well, this time I shall go for the head." 

 

 

 

 

A half hour later, Steve, Thor, Rhodes and Rocket stood in the middle of a deserted New York, which was definitely a strange sight to see. No traffic sounds, no sidewalks filled with people... It was eerily quiet.

Thor looked beat. "Thanos nor his minions are here."

Steve looked around, confused. "There... doesn’t really seem to be much out of the ordinary here, besides the fact that no one is on the streets."

He gestured to the nearby buildings. "All these buildings are intact. If it was his minions, they’d probably had destroyed half of New York by now." 

Rhodes turned around, slowly, taking in the surroundings. "Well, the scanners showed that an extremely powerful burst of energy caused a collapse in this area, which created a breach, a doorway from somewhere to here. The energy signature was definitely similar to that of the Tesseract."

Rocket cocked his gun. "Maybe some idiot in the area saw what happened." He offered, jabbing Thor's leg with his weapon. 

Steve slowly nodded his head. "Alright, Avengers. Spread out, and try to find someone who may have seen what came out of that portal."

"Wait, the scanners picked up a trail of high potential energy that leads away from the portal's original spawn point. It continues for a little while, before stopping, then vanishing... Right about here. No signs of an anomaly to prove an edit point." Rhodes stood on the sidewalk, near an abandoned car, the window smashed in. 

"The energy source just disappeared? That doesn’t make any sense." Thor muttered, poking the area of the concrete floor with Stormbreaker.

"That means it wasn’t the Tesseract then." Rocket pointed out. "That thing literally gives out the strongest energy, so its super easy to track. Yet there was no exit portal."

"But, what else could open a space dimensional portal and just disappear?" Steve asked, rubbing his chin.

"The energy source's time of disappearance was a bit after Thanos snapping. Could it be that someone—not something, had the ability to open a portal but then got dusted?" Rhodes questioned.

The group fell silent. 

"Well, if that’s the case, what about the other six beings that were reported to have passed through the breach as well? And, more importantly, why did they come here?"

"Captain America?" 

The four of them spun around; and Steve instinctively pointed the sharp edge of his shield at the person. 

It was a teenaged girl, her eyes widened as she saw them all pointing their weapons at her. She quickly took a few steps back. Steve quickly lowered his shield. "Hey there." He said, trying to act more casual.

"I, um, overheard a little bit of your guys' conversation, and I just wanted to let you know that I heard some loud screaming coming from that Wal-Mart over there." She hesitated, looking nervous. "Is... Is there actually aliens in New York again? Do you know why people started turning into dust? Was it them, the aliens?" 

"I can’t tell you that right now, kid." Rhodes spoke up, shooting Steve a warning look. 

"Alright, thanks for the info. Now let’s get going." Rocket piped up, nudging Thor with his gun again. 

 

"... Holy shit, is that a talking raccoon?!" The girl exclaimed, staring at him. 

"Yeah, yeah. I’m a talking raccoon, let it all out." He sighed, and paused for a second before talking.

 

"Okay, show's over. Let’s go."

 

 

 

The Wal-Mart seemed to pretty deserted. 

 

The four quietly stepped in, glancing around, half-expecting an ambush from aliens. Instead, nothing. A fat rat waddled by, squeaking indignantly, not surprised by their sudden presence. 

"Well, did we really expect the people who may or may not have seen the six creatures who exited the portal stay around this area?" Rocket muttered, snatching the poor rodent up by the tail. It squeaked louder, kicking it’s small paws around. 

Thor frowned at him. "Let your poor cousin go."

"What? This stupid little creature is in no way related to me. Look at it! It’s so puny. I saved the galaxy _twice._ What's this stupid thing gonna do?" Rocket fumed, but set the rat down anyways. 

"Bugger off." He grumbled at the smaller rodent. "Next time, ya won't run into someone as compassionate as means you’re dead meat."

"You? Compassionate? Ha." Thor deadpanned. 

"Stay close, and look for any clues for signs of an attack or anything that seems out of the ordinary." Steve ordered, ending the banter. He looked around the place.

An annoyingly upbeat song blared over the speakers and their footsteps blended in with the music's beat. 

As they passed by the Beauty & Healthcare section, Rhodes pointed out that one of the shelves had collapsed, and a struggle may have happened, indicated by the shampoo bottles littering the surrounding floor. 

"Hello?" Thor suddenly boomed. He had walked ahead, and was somewhere where the rest of the team could not see him. "Stay right where you are." He growled, and the three of them quickly ran in the general direction of his voice. 

 

Steve arrived on the scene, and saw three scrawny teens and Thor pointing Stormbreaker at them threateningly. The smallest of the bunch— an Asian boy, was hugging his stomach tightly.

 

"Thor! Put that down." Steve hissed. "They’re just kids." 

"How do I know they’re not aliens in disguise?" Thor retorted. "Where did you three come from?"

 

"My name is Klaus Hargreeves, these are my brothers; Ben and Diego. We come from earth." One of the boys— Klaus spoke up. "And you are?" 

"That is Captain America? War machine? Thor?" Rocket butted in. "Have you guys never seen the Avengers before?"

One of the brothers— Diego, shot Klaus a quick look. In that fleeting glance, Thor saw fear.

"I’m going to only ask this once again. Where did you come from?" Thor snapped, leveling Stormbreaker so it was at Ben's chest. Ben squirmed, squeezing his arms tighter around himself. 

"Hey, hey, hey." Steve quickly inserted himself between Thor and Ben. "Are you okay? Is your stomach hurting?" He reached out slowly to the boy, but he pulled away. "N—no! Stay there. Don’t touch me, please." 

Rhodes spotted something moving underneath Ben's shirt. He watched closely, watching it bump against the clothing, as if it wanted to be let out. 

"Hey. What’s that under your shirt?" He demanded, stepping forward. 

Ben's eyes comically widened, and he took several steps away. "N—nothing." Diego and Klaus quickly moved in front of him like a human shield. "It—it's nothing sir—War Machine." Diego nervously smiled, putting his hand up. 

"Move out of the way." Thor boomed, pushing the two easily to the side. 

 

"Stay—stay back! Please." Ben begged as Steve came closer.

 

"It’s okay, kid. Just show us what you're hiding—“ 

 

 

"N—NO!" Ben screamed, and everyone watched in horror as two tentacles suddenly burst out and wrapped around Steve Rogers.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thankyou for 500+ kudos and 100 bookmarks aaa TwT  
> I love u guys, 3000
> 
> Avengers and the Hargreeves have meT what happens next? I don’t know bc I don’t plan stories ahead that much  
> Also like I know this chapter is written more sloppily than usual but my brain is aLl over the place rn I’ll edit it later 
> 
>  
> 
> comments & kudos inflate my egO


	6. Avengers facility gets a half-star rating on yelp :(

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long time no see
> 
> surprised if u still care about this story lolol
> 
> Also ps this chapter is very roughly edited bc I got lazy :(  
> I’ll probably edit some stuff up so if ur rereading this chap it may be slightly different than what u remember

 

Everyone had started freaking out as soon as Steve was engulfed by the swarm of tentacles. 

Klaus didn’t really help matters, as he promptly screamed: “OH SHIT, HE DEAD!” 

Which had lead to the rest of the members of the group to yank out all of their weapons. 

Ben was screaming the loudest out of everyone; as Captain America began trying to escape his tentacles by slapping them with the sharp edge of his odd pointy shield. Then, Ben’s voice went an octave higher as he saw the rest of the Avengers’ weapons pointed right at him. 

Then one of Rocket’s guns was knocked out of his hand by a cleanly thrown soup can. “Hey! That was my favourite gun!” He screeched. “You are going to pay for that.”

Diego panicked and hid behind a shelving unit as Rocket began shooting at him. 

The man with the huge axe— Thor was trying to pry apart Steve from the tentacles, but to no avail. 

Rocket had stopped firing, and now the store was full of Steve and Ben screaming in unision.  

Klaus suddenly felt something sharp prick his leg. Looking down, he spotted a dart of sorts, and looking back up, he saw that the talking raccoon holding up a dart gun. 

He promptly collapsed.

 

 

Klaus found himself sitting at a very familiar dining table. 

A voice droning about the precautions of mountain climbing played in the distance, and Sir Hargreeves sat at the head of the table. Ben sat next to him, reading a book, and Luther and Allison were shooting each other looks across the table. Vanya sat at the opposite end of the table, quietly poking her food, and Five was looking absolutely pissed off.

It felt calm, soft music gently lulling Klaus into a dazed state.

It was then when Klaus immediately knew what was about to happen. “What the fuck is this?” He asked out loud. To some of his surprise, Ben looked up from his book and shushed him. “Sh! You know Sir Hargreeves doesn’t like it when you curse during dinner.”

Klaus was about to retaliate when Five slammed his steak knife into the table, effectively shutting them up. “I want to time travel.” He glared a death stare at Hargreeves.

Sir Hargreeves didn’t look up. “No.” 

“But— but I’ve been practicing my spatial jumps, just like you said!” Five said, then promptly disappeared then reappeared next to Sir Hargreeves in a poof of blue.

“Time travel is diffe—“

”Jesus fucking Christ, Five! If you want to do it, just do it. Or chicken out and don’t. We’re all screwed in the future anyways.” Klaus blurted out, standing up.

Fuck it. It was his dream anyways. 

All of the other Hargreeves turned and looked at him. Ben, like always, tugged on his sleeve, trying to urge him to calm down. “Klaus— c’mon. Um, calm down.” 

Even in his dreams was Ben the only one who cared for him. Was his life really that sad? “Language, Klaus.” Hargreeves barked, resuming his meal. 

”Well, none of this is even. Fucking. Real.” Klaus picked up his steak knife, and walked towards Hargreeves. “So...”

Klaus pulled him harshly away from his dinner, and stabbed his father in the chest. 

Klaus watched with some satisfaction as his eyes bulged, and he choked on whatever he was eating. His limbs contorted, and he stared up at Klaus, his eyes slowly losing their focus. Klaus yanked out the knife and stabbed him again. And again, for good measure. Blood splattered all over Klaus, painting him up like a deadly Easter egg. 

The rest of his siblings got up, unsure of what to do. This was definitely a really weird dream.

He laughed. This was too much of a fun dream. Or maybe it was a nightmare. Either way,

Vanya suddenly started screaming, and the house began to fill with flames. Diego jumped onto the table, executing a perfect twirl as he did so, clad in a pink tutu. Allison started jumping around, a fat rat darting around, and she was screeching. “Oh shit! A rat!"

Klaus laughed in delight, as a cow jumped over the dining table and Luther screamed—

 

 

”—Oh, look he’s waking up.” 

“—Hm? Oh.”

 

Klaus groaned; his head felt as if it had been stuffed with a ton of marshmallows. He blinked, his vision blurry. 

“What the—?” He muttered, lifting his hands up to rub his eyes. To his dismay, he found them locked down to the bed he was lying in. God, the sheets were so itchy. He’d definitely give this place a half-star review on Yelp. 

 

He looked up.

Captain America and Thor stared down at him. 

He glanced to the right and left to only see he was in some sort of hospital looking place. A huge poster of a smiling cat which read: DON'T WORRY. FEEL BETTER SOON. The cat's smile was so stretched out, it seemed quite horrifying.

 

Ben and Diego were nowhere to be found, sadly. 

Unless they were hiding in the cupboard drawers. Klaus mused that Ben could probably squish himself inside. Although this probably wasn’t the case.

 

“Are you room service?” Klaus asked as cheerily as he could. “I would like you to bring me to my brothers.” He paused slightly, then narrowed his eyes. “Right now.

”No can do, bud.” Captain America said, looking slightly sympathetic, as Thor snorted. “As if. You guys are probably Thanos’ soldiers and you’re probably trying to contact him this very moment! You can tell your leader he can go commit dust.”

“Commit dust?” Klaus squinted at the man— God, dude, whatever. “Is that some weird euphemism for like...?” He trailed off.

“I think he’s referring to what happened to... to half of the world’s population. They all turned to dust.” Steve explained.

 

Klaus nodded, then it hit him. “Wait, what caused people to turn to dust?! Is that what happened to all of my odd-numbered siblings when they all went poof?” He mimicked a tiny explosion with his hands. 

“Well, yes. I suppose so.” Captain America agreed.

 

”Back to the matter at hand!” Thor boomed, spooking both Klaus and Captain America.  

“What are you, really?” Thor loomed over him, his eyes literally stormy—they were glowing a voluptuous blue, small sparks dancing up a storm in his eyes. 

“Your... brother, has tentacles in his stomach! Your other sibling is apparently normal, which I find very hard to believe. What about you?" Thor poked Klaus with the dulled tip of Stormbreaker.

"I can, um, talk to the dead?" Klaus shrugged to the best of his ability—it was pretty damn difficult to properly shrug while being strapped down. Also, Diego being normal? Yeah... sure. Was there a good reason to why he hid the fact he had godly aim and could change the trajectory of his blades? Or maybe it was just typical broody Diego who didn’t like sharing things.

"It only works sometimes though. But, once more, can I please see my siblings now? Pretty please with a cherry and rainbow sprinkles on top?" Klaus beamed up at them.

 

"KLAUS!" Diego suddenly burst through the door, dressed in a oversized sweater. "Oh yay, you—you're awake!"

 

He then nodded, acknowledging the other two in the room. "Thor, Steve, heya." Steve did a small wave, while Thor nodded slightly and boomed, “Hello, Knife Man."

 

"Steve?” Klaus tilted his head slightly. He tried wiggling out of the extremely uncomfortable wrist straps, to no avail. "Knife Man?" He leaned back, letting out a drunken laugh. "Oh my god, that is the most stupid nickname anyone has given Diego—and I’m the king of stupid. Stupid nicknames." He grinned.

 

Captain America lifted a hand. "Well, I’m Steve Rogers. It’s nice to meet you, Klaus."

Klaus squinted at him. "You know my name?"

Diego snorted. "I... I kind of shouted your name while I was entering the room? Also, I’ve already told them a lot of stuff regarding this place, us, old place... Y'know." He trailed off slowly.

 

"Anyways, I told you guys, we—we don’t know anything about your "Thanos"! We're from like a whole… whole other, I don’t know, universe or timeline or something." Diego gestured at where Klaus lay tied down. "Please untie him?" 

 

Thor muttered an unintelligible comment under his breath, while Steve undid the straps. "He... your brother's powers can’t harm us right?" Steve asked, hesitating at the last strap.

 

"He’s terrible at using—using his powers. They barely work." Diego waved Steve on.

"Thank you!" Klaus huffed, shaking his hands. Imprints of where the straps had been showed on his skin. "Your room quality here is terrible, but I’ll give your room service efforts a three out of five. Now, where is Ben?" 

Diego frowned. "I haven’t been able to find him. These guys barely let me wander around this place alone, and you were conked out on drugs for a while, and—and they've only let me walk freely on this floor." 

 

Klaus looked down at himself, stretching before he got up on his feet. "Hey! We're twinsies, baby brother!" He wore an identical sweater, with the words Stark Technologies emblazoned on it.

"I’m older than you." Diego's short burst of enthusiasm to see him seemed quickly worn out. 

 

"Anyways! Where is—" Klaus clapped his hands, stood up, then his feet gave out. Diego quickly caught him before he fell. "My knight in shining armour!" Klaus gushed, then stabled himself. "As I was saying, where is Ben?" 

 

"Well, you see, he hasn’t quite cleared security yet." Steve offered. "Um, well seeing as he did try to strangle me with his uh, tentacles, we’ve decided to keep him away until we can prove he isn’t a danger to himself or anyone in the facility."

 

"But, hey. Why don’t I introduce you to the rest of the gang?" Steve smiled, then pushed the door open. 

 

Klaus and Diego exited the hospital-like room, and followed Steve and Thor down the hall to an elevator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t u just love it when the next updated chapter is really sort of filler but on crack so it’s really just sad
> 
> I would love to say I had schoolwork that kept me busy (which it did partly) but I just got too lazy to ever finish off this chapter even though it had always been sitting in my drafts. But summer is here babey!! More updates soon hopefully 
> 
> Also any random prompts y’all want me to fit in the storyline somewhere comment em down below and I’ll see if I can find a place to shoe it in :D
> 
> Comments and kudos make me write faster >:D
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> ( that was half a lie I’m sorry I just want ur love and attention )


	7. *crashes through window* bEN?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: unedited n written on crack

Diego silently followed Steve, Thor and Klaus down the hall.

 

Klaus continued to pester Steve about the whereabouts of Ben, the determination in his eyes signalling that he wasn’t about to let go of the topic. Thor was keeping a close watch on Klaus, scrutinizing his every move. Diego supposed he had gained the trust of the "Avengers".

(He thought their team name sounded ridiculous and almost laughed the first time hearing it.)

He had been awake much earlier than either of his siblings, and had talked his way into the Avengers team, surprisingly somewhat easy to gain their trust. He had told them _mostly_ the truth— they didn’t come from this world, half of their siblings had disappeared, and their world had been falling into an apocalypse. 

He didn’t say anything about his own powers— being able to change the trajectory of the knives he threw, nor did he say anything about them actually being adults stuck in their child selves or that one of his sisters had caused the apocalypse in their world. 

The Avengers seemed to believe him well enough. They weren’t even really lies, they were more like parts of the story he’d conveniently left out which may or may not come in his favour later.

He’d even had a knife throwing session with the spy lady— Natasha? Natalie? Something along those lines— and Thor dubbed him "Knife Man" after he had won the knife throwing contest. 

 

The matter at hand was that if _he_ trusted them. 

 

They did reassure him that both Klaus and Ben were okay, and Klaus did turn out to be actually fine. Diego still felt like he couldn’t wholly trust them though. 

The team had told him Ben was awake, but they had to run some 'tests' to make sure he didn’t accidentally activate instant kill mode with his tentacles again. Diego had protested against this, like hey, if you don’t want the tentacles don’t provoke them! Simple as that. 

He was being kept on level three, which was one of the underground floors. Diego had overheard this part when they were discussing something about Ben. 

The scientist guy— Banner, was it?— told him that he had a similar problem to Ben, he could turn into a huge green monster called Hulk and easily smash anyone or anything he saw. Banner had reassured Diego that he’d been through the quarantine testing just like Ben had, and he was doing his best to make sure Ben felt comfortable.

He said Ben was (apparently) enjoying his time in quarantine. Who in the world enjoys being quarantined?! 

But then again it was Ben. Ben was pretty much a questionable person, and also for the most part, the glass-is-half-full kind of guy.

Still, he had been formulating a plan to break Ben out of quarantine. He had to protect his baby brother. He was almost there, he just needed Klaus to create a grand enough diversion. 

Klaus was a good leader, right? His plan should work, right? If it didn’t, many, many things would go wrong and he’d be the blame for it. Oh god, his plan better not flop.

Well, his plan was probably bound to head south, due to the complexity of this building's security features. 

 

"So, about Ben..." Klaus tried again, as they were all cramped within the elevator. 

Diego played Where’s Waldo?: Level Three Button Edition. There were so many tiny buttons on the interior of the elevator. 

"He’s still stuck in quarantine, Klaus." Steve said tiredly, for what may have been the twelfth time? Diego didn’t keep count, but Klaus kept bugging Steve and he kept answering with the same thing over and over again. 

"Well, you know, uh, Ben has trouble when he’s separated from us for a long time. It’s a sibling thing. So, you could you know just... direct me to the quarantine?" Klaus asked, giving Steve puppy eyes. 

"Sorry kid. No can do." 

 

They reached the main floor, and Steve and Thor began to lead Klaus to the main meeting area.  

"Whoa! You guys have a soda machine! Hold on." Klaus fumbled with his pockets of his pants, pulling out two dollars. Steve raised an eyebrow in question. 

"Go—go ahead! I’ll take him to the living room." Diego beamed pleasantly at them, and clasped Klaus' shoulders.

Thor and Steve shrugged and actually left them. 

"Okay, we—well, Klaus." Diego lowered his voice instantly. He knew there was some sort of A.I system in place, but he wasn’t really sure of how it worked. Who knew who was listening on him right now? "I need your—your help." 

Klaus had froze, halfway squatting to get his soda. "What is it? Why are we whispering?"  

 

"We are breaking Ben out of quarantine."

 

" _What!?"_ Klaus whisper-yelled. "Dude, that’s a bad idea. They said he was doing okay! I mean they treated me decently although their sheets aren’t exactly five-star material. Besides how the hell you gonna get him out of quarantine? From what I’ve seen so far this place is pretty well guarded." He popped open the can of soda, and took a long, loud slurp. 

"Well, I need you to cause a diversion for me to break him out." Diego muttered, twisting his fingers nervously. 

"What? How the hell am I supposed to do that? And why am I always the one who was to mess stuff up?!" Klaus exclaimed. 

"Klaus? Diego? Did you two get lost?" Thor boomed from somewhere down the hall. The two froze, and Diego yelled, "Yeah— the vending machine, er, malfunctioned for a bit. It’s fine now!" 

He turned around and gripped Klaus' shoulder. "Okay, you need to cr—create a distraction. For me. For Ben." Then he let go. "Let’s go to the meeting room now."

 

Klaus let out an indignant squeak, standing there, soda in hand. Then he ran after Diego, to the living room, because this place was ridiculously huge and he didn’t want to get lost.

 

 

 

 _Make a diversion._ Diego had said. 

As Klaus awkwardly introduced himself to the team of Avengers, he kept looking around for what may cause a distraction long enough for Diego to bust Ben out of quarantine. 

Diego kept giving him small stares whenever he thought no one was looking at him. The scary spy woman, Natasha, had probably caught 75% of Diego's stares. 

There wasn't too much in the room, a couple of couches, a glass table, a television and a computer and other typical living room stuff. What could he do? He had a half-empty can of soda, and a rubber band. 

"So how's that cola doing?" Rhodes asked him, folding his arms. "Ben said he’d never had anything like it before— did you guys not have cola in your world?!” 

Well, there was indeed cola in their world, but Sir Hargreeves just never let them have any. He had said " _Sugar will mess up your concentration and your powers."_

Oh! Bad idea time. 

Klaus grinned wolfishly. "This stuff is a-ma-zing! I feel SO hyper right now. Is that a common side effect to these so-called cola's?" To demonstrate he jumped up onto the couch, and bounced several times. 

 _Oops._ He thought as he jumped and stiffly landed sideways on the glass table.  

It shattered completely on contact. 

Glass shards rained down on everyone. The poor cup of coffee that had been sitting completely sprayed over Rocket who had the unfortunate luck of sitting so close by. 

"Oh, fuck." Klaus mumbled quietly. It wasn’t supposed to hurt _that_ much. He made brief eye contact with Diego, and Diego nodded before slowly backing away from the scene unfolding. "Whoa! I’ll go get Banner from downstairs!" He yelled, before dashing off. 

"AH! GOD THE HUMANITY!" He shrieked, getting up and knocking over a chair. 

"THIS IS SO MUCH PAIN—“ He stood up in his sugar-induced daze and _accidentally_ got tangled up with the potted plant, knocking it over, and continuing to scream in hysterics. 

"OH MY GOD I SEE GOD. HI GOD!” He patted Thor's head. 

 

 

 

 

That was definitely a weird distraction, but it worked. 

Diego ran to the elevator and began coming up with a mini-plan to rescue Ben. He actually hadn’t 100% thought this through though. He had a ballpoint pen and a knife he'd snagged on the way, on him which he could use as a mini-distraction if needed. 

The elevator pinged, signalling he’d reached the third floor and he dashed down to the quarantine area. He found Banner studying something on the computer outside the room Ben was in. 

He caught a glimpse of Ben through a window. He was curled up on the bed, facing away from them. It was probably a one-way window. _Looking all cheery and happy my ass._

"BANNER!” He put on his panicked voice. "Klaus has never had a cola before—we don’t have those in our world— and he’s spazzing out and smashed a table and everyone’s bleeding! You need to come quick!” 

He looked up from his work, eyes widening. "Oh god! That’s definitely not good." 

He quickly got up, and began to run towards the elevator. "Diego, come on!" 

 

Mini-distraction time.

Diego dropped the pen, but changed the path of the pen, manipulating the trajectory so it would roll far off. "Shit, my—my lucky pen! Go on without me!" 

Bruce left. 

 Diego ignored the pen and ran over to the window. 

He took his knife, and hurled it upwards, then changing the path of it when it began to plummet, directing it's force at the glass. It made a decent-sized hole, and Ben screamed from the inside. An alert went off, _GLASS HAS BEEN BROKEN IN QUARANTINE._

Diego punched the glass with his fist, widening the hole, but also causing his hand to bleed. He jumped through.  

"Ben!” He screeched, tackling the smaller boy with a huge hug. 

"Diego?!” He squawked. "What the heck are you doing here?" 

"Rescuing you?" Diego offered. "A—a thank you would be nice."

”Rescuing me?” Ben squinted. “Am I in some sort of danger?” 

“Well, uh, probably? I— I don’t know. They kept me and Klaus from seeing you for so long!” Diego gestured wildly with his hands. “C’mon! Let’s scoop up Klaus.”

Ben stared at Diego as he began to awkwardly squeeze through the broken window. 

Ben went to the door and pushed it open. 

“Wh-What?” Diego panted, halfway through the hole in the window. “The door was unlocked this whole time? Why didn’t... Why didn’t you come out and talk to us?”

“Well, I didn’t want to hurt you because of my powers! Dr. Banner was making sure of that!” Ben squeaked.

Suddenly, the elevator doors flung open, and the whole team of Avengers were staring at him and Ben.

Klaus was being carried fireman-style, flung over Steve’s shoulder. “HEY CAPTAIN CANADA I, UM FEEL SICK?! LET’S TAKE THE TEAM BACK UPSTAIRS? Yeah?” 

 

Natasha folded her arms, staring at Diego who was trapped in the window. 

“You got some explaining to do, buddy.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back with that monthly update ;))))))))


	8. knife man, how could you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER FUCKIN DELETED ITSELF SO MANY RIMES WHEN IT WAS STILL A DRAFT OMY GOD IM SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO COMPLETE
> 
>  
> 
> this is not monthly update I’m so sorry but fuckin ao3 deleted everything I wrote for this chapter 👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺👺

  

Ben stared at the ceiling.

It was much better than watching the commotion go down in front of him. Wow— was that a patch of mold up there?

”—Oh, I had a good reason to go in there and break him out. You guys are acting way too fishy!” Diego was protesting, and cradling his arm, which had gotten cut in the process of climbing in and out of the mirror or window; Ben still had no clue what to call the material which separated him from the rest of the building.

Klaus on the other hand, was still flopped over Steve’s shoulders, and he was still protesting. “Let me down! Let me down! Oh, hey Ben!” 

He waved cheerfully, taking a small break from beating the devil out of Steve’s shoulders. Ben waved in return, scooting off to the side. He nervously rocked back and forth on his feet.

“Knife Man, how could you?" Thor said, pointing Stormbreaker right at Diego. He backed off, eyes narrowing. 

Klaus had returned to screaming and shouting and Steve started to act like an exasperated dad. “Klaus, stop. I’ll let you down once I know you’ll be on your good behaviour.”  

“We had to keep him in quarantine just in case.” Dr. Bruce Banner spoke up, voice loud yet still calm. “Ben agreed to it.” 

“What?” Klaus and Diego both exclaimed.   

“Fuck.” Diego muttered. “You could’ve said so!” 

 

“Why don’t we talk about this in the common room?” 

 

 

 

Ben found himself on the couch, snugly sandwiched between the edge and Diego. The comforting aura of the multicoloured couches and the random posters that decorated the walls made the angry Avengers seem a lot less threatening. Pepper was there too, although she was situated behind a desk with a computer on it. 

Steve has finally let Klaus down, only after making Klaus promise he wouldn’t start screaming and throwing things around. Now, Klaus sat on the other side of Diego, frowning, and picking at the ace bandage that wrapped his hand. 

Opposite to where the Hargreeves sat, Steve, Thor and Rhodes were crowded on another couch. Bruce stood, elbow resting on the edge of the couch. Rocket sat on the coffee table between them. 

"Well, let’s start off from the beginning.” Bruce gently placed his hand on Thor’s shoulder.

”When Rocket tranquilized all three of you, the effects wore off the quickest on Ben. We separated you as we were— er, under the implication you served Thanos. As the outburst of the creature from Ben here, I asked if he would be okay being studied while in quarantine.” Bruce nervously fidgeted with his hands, trying to calm down the tense atmosphere.

“I agreed to stay.” Ben piped up. 

Everyone turned to stare at him, as if to say _nobody fucking asked you, shut the fuck up,_ and Ben shrunk in on himself. He quickly busied himself with pulling a thread from the couch cushions.

“Yeah, he agreed to stay. Anyways, Diego woke up and seemed fine. We all hung out with him, carefully examining his every move just in case he was actually working for Thanos— which, by the way, we haven’t exactly come to the conclusion you aren’t working for Thanos.”

”How— how many times do I have to say: I have no fucking clue who Thanos is!” Diego groaned, slumping down on the couch. "We came out of a weird spatial jump one of our brothers did, and now we're here in freaking America. We're from Canada, by the way."

"I don’t really think that they care about where we came from— why are we talking about this?" Klaus rolled his eyes. "I’m bored." 

"Not telling you about the whereabouts of your brother was sort of a trust test. We believe you didn't know Thanos, and in return examined to see if you had trust in us. Which you don’t, obviously." Natasha interjected, her voice cool and collected.

"So how can we possibly trust you now, Knife Man?" Thor boomed. "I gave you my trust, and you just... broke it! I am indeed deeply wounded by your actions." 

Diego looked away, looking unsure. "Well, fuck, I mean we were just reunited. Ben has been dead for like, probably over fifteen years! I finally get to see him and shit, you—you take him away!" 

Steve looked sympathetic, so Klaus sought to his appeal. "You can’t blame us for wanting to be with our family."

"Wait." Natasha once more interrupted. "Over fifteen years, Ben has been dead? How is that even possible? You told me you were all thirteen. Also, how did you guys bring back someone who’s been dead for so long? Shouldn’t he be decomposed and rotted?"

"About that." Ben started awkwardly, fiddling with the thread. "Well, that brother with the ability to perform teleportation, can also jump through time. And, uh, he went back to the year before I died. Which is age thirteen. But, you see, the problem is that our old timeline was in 2019, only a year from now. Which doesn’t make sense because all of us are physically thirteen, but we've only gone back a year." 

Rocket looked at him as if Ben suddenly had grown a cucumber from his ear. "What? Diego, you never said anything about that! You just mentioned a jump through space time!" He suddenly held up a furry finger. "Wait— how old are you guys technically?" 

"Thirty-five?" Ben weakly offered. 

The Avengers raised an eyebrow at that. 

"I’m technically thirty-six, 'cause I spent a year in the Vietnam War with this cool guy named Dave, and oh, everyone's staring at me I should shut up now, shouldn’t I?" Klaus trailed off.

"This time travel shit is messed up. What was even happening in your world that was so dramatic you all had to go back in time?" Rhodes crossed his arms. 

"Well, my sister, Vanya, who’s now a dust bunny." Diego began. "Kind of blew up our world by blowing up the moon?" 

The Avengers only stared, and Ben worried that someone's eye would pop out and roll across the floor. 

"Vanya's not bad, I swear. It’s just bad childhood and so Five— the time travel guy— he went to the future by accident, saw the disaster and tried to prevent it. It didn’t work so while the world was burning he sent us back in time to fix her childhood, something happened, and now we’re here." 

There was a long pause, as everyone digested this bit of news. 

 

"You know what? I still fucking miss Dave." Klaus broke the silence. 

"Okay, Klaus." Diego muttered. "We know." 

 

Suddenly, an alert went off. Everyone shot up, ready to move.

"Something's landed on our lawn!" Natasha was immediately situated at the computer. "It’s... an alien ship? And there’s a glowing... person?" 

Rocket darted over and stared at the live video feed. "That’s the Benetar! Our old ship!" 

The two turned and looked at each other. "Stark?" They both said at the same time. 

 

 

Steve and Pepper were already gone from the room. 

 

 

"Who’s Stark?" Klaus asked, confused as everyone else ran out of the room. "God fucking damnit, why do you all ignore me!"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhhhhhhhhhhh sofry For lack of updates. The chapter which I had written most of in August suddenly disappeared and so I was unmotivated but I’m back and better than ever,,,,,,,,
> 
>  
> 
> Notes:
> 
> Hey it’s naniwrimo which means I’ll try to update more this month and b) I’ve done some editing to the past chapters. Nothing big is altered it’s just a smoo5her read now or something idk lol
> 
> if u feel the need to bug me about updating find me on ig @nicckchen and I will maybe write faster idk 
> 
> Comments n kudos fill the empty hole of existence


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